Govt mulls making intrusion of privacy a criminal offence – Liew

PUTRAJAYA: The government is studying the possibility of making intrusion of privacy a criminal offence, alongside the proposed anti-stalking law, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong.

Referring to the recent incident of the viral sex videos implicating a minister, Liew said he was looking into the matter as intrusion of privacy.

“We all have our privacy whether you like it or not. We all want to make sure our privacy is protected and cannot be intruded. I’m looking into that,” he told reporters at the Legal Affairs Division (BHEUU) Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house here today.

In response to a question on the production and circulation of sex videos from the perspective of law, Liew said he had set up a committee to look into the formulation of law to check such unhealthy practices.

This was aimed at protecting society, especially women and children, from becoming victims of such offences, he said.

“This is the time for us to look at this because there are also a lot of offences we have seen lately, such as between girlfriend and boyfriend whereby the boy took a photo of the girl and exposed it on social media to threaten that girl.

“It can also happen whereby somebody takes a video of some action between certain partners and then they use that video to threaten that particular person,” he said.

Earlier this year, Liew had proposed legislation to make stalking, peeping or prying upon another person a criminal offence.

On the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) for major public appointments, Liew said there was no bill to be tabled in Parliament to legalise the committee.

“There’s no bill yet on that particular issue,” he said.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad reportedly said that the Federal Constitution needed to be amended if the PSC set up for major public appointments was to function legally. – Bernama